This theater is the closest that visitors on this modern Rouge Tour will get to the nearby steel mills. The modern day Rouge tour will not go to the mills nor see the port facilities where freighters come in--both of which were on the original tours. Those properties now belong to the financially strapped Rouge Industries (a.k.a. Rouge Steel), spun-off from Ford in 1989, that recently agreed to sell its assets to Russian steel maker Severstal JSC and filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors.
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| Tourists will ride an elevator to the 80-foot observation deck where they can look around at the Rouge complex and at the grass roof. (Photo: Joseph Cabadas, Canadian Auto Press) |
After leaving the second theater, tourists will ride an elevator to the 80-foot observation deck where they can look around at the Rouge complex and at the grass roof.
The living roof gives Ford a creative solution on how to manage rainfall without building a series of expensive sewers, along with added insulation value and a potential lifespan of up to 30 years before needing replacement. The roof also has 10 roof monitors (which are large skylights that look like a series of hot houses on a grass field) and 36 skylights to provide natural light inside the factory.
Also on the observation deck are interpretive displays that tell visitors of other environmental innovations found in and around the Rouge Center--such as the building of swales around Miller Road, the main thoroughfare, to retain and clean storm water runoff--and to learn about next generation, environmentally sustainable manufacturing.
"After touring the visitor's center, they will walk through an enclosed overpass and emerge into the Dearborn Truck Plant," Hamp said. "Along the plant tour route, interactive exhibits will explain the lean and flexible manufacturing processes they are seeing below them as they watch the F-150s being assembled by the talented men and women of Ford Motor Company."
Tourists will actually be on a mezzanine level, above the factory floor. Although separated from the action that will be going on and personal contact with workers, they will also be separated from potential hazards and can have a bird's eye view of what happens in the assembly process--including being right over the line in many spots.